Back from HSC

So we had a few days in Toronto so that Yale could have some follow up with neurology/stroke team and the thrombosis team. As I was constantly reminded by the doctors back when Yale was still in critical care, "thombosis are the clot people" Things went well.... well relatively well. Just don't ask Yale how he feels about getting bloodwork done... or anyone that is trying to hit a vein. He was picked 5 times in 2 days. the first three times were an attempt to get an IV "just in case they needed to inject him with dye for his CT scan" well they got it in on the third try, but they didn't need to give him dye afterall... But they pulled the IV before bringing him back to us.. and they could have used that IV to draw blood for his blood work. Trust me Yale was not the only one super pissed off about a pointless IV. Then the next day we took him to go get his blood drawn so they could get a level for his enoxaparin (blood thinner). But it turns out they didn't get enough and there wasn't enough blood to do the test. GRRR... so all in all... 5 picks for nothing! It sure would be good if someone would invent a painless way to test blood!

Well after all that terrible stuff. We got our follow up with thrombosis. Yale is all clear for blood clots, and there is no more residuals left from the few he had after surgery... YAY. And today we had our follow up with neurology and Yale's CT scan showed clear... which is SUPER! WOOHOO... compared to the CTs he had immediately after the appearance of his seizures, the stokes were quite obvious, so this shows that they have scarred down and should most likely have zero effect on Yale. YAY! although we won't know for sure until his fine motor skills develop. And they are still waiting for the results from the EEG, but if they show no signs of seizures, we can take Yale off his phenobarb..woohoo for one less med!

Anyhoo... so that is the gist of the trip... stressful, but mainly all good news... except the fact that Yale has yet to have his bloodwork done! :(
Here is Yale all dressed up to flirt with the nurses... and trust me... he flirts!

as promised

For those medically curious people, here is the picture Dr Benson gave us from Yale's stent placement. I'll try to explain them to the best of my knowledge, but trust that I am only a parent, not a medical professional. I just think they are soooo cool to see
So. The top picture is Yale's hear before the placement. the long wire is the heart catherater. It goes in through the major vein in the groin. (think those big tendon like veins on either side of the groin) Well, it is up and through the atrial Septum defect (ASD). This is a hole between the two upper chambers of the heart. It needs to be open to allow Yale's blood to mix. the darker blotch is the ink that they inject to get better images of what they are doing

The bottom picture you can see after the stent has been placed and opened the ink then flows through to the right side of the heart. The stent opened Yale's ASD almost 100%. The cool thing about the bottom picture is it gives you a real indication of how small the left side is compared to the right.